Thomas Lemar scored twice for France on deadline day and Arsenal fans are furious with Arsene Wenger for failing to sign the Monaco man

“Three hours later the people negotiating the deal were waiting for Lemar to make a decision. It came down purely to Thomas Lemar not wanting to go to Arsenal at that stage of the transfer window.

“It's not known whether he'd agreed earlier in the window when Arsenal were interested in him to come.

“But then as interest came from other clubs - Manchester United and Liverpool, who bid €80m and wouldn't go any higher for the player - if that changed his mind.

“That meant he didn't want to join Arsenal who had started so badly this season.

“Either way, the point was if you're trying to do a deal like that you have to know the player is going to come to you.

GETTY

Manchester United didn't get paperwork through in time to sign Real Madrid's Keylor Navas

“It's reminiscent of David De Gea two summers ago, with the partial swap deals of De Gea to Madrid and Keylor Navas as Louis van Gaal's recommendation as a replacement.

“Real Madrid did all the work in advance but were shocked to discover that while Manchester United had agreed the sale, they'd done nothing to set up with Keylor Navas, the goalkeeper they were going to sign.

“They didn't get the paperwork through before the deadline. It was purely because Manchester United had not done their homework.

“Here you've got another major Premier League club that would blow their precious spending apart.